Zazen

Took the boys out to get some local 'za tonight, which they both greatly enjoyed. I got them a 12" cheese pizza, and I got myself a 12" with jalapenos, hot Italian sausage, red onions, and, for fun, a quail egg added on one slice (I had to get that, when I saw it on the menu). I'd also gotten some garlic bread for B1, some melted goat cheese-n-sauce for me, and a Fat Tire beer. We got stuffed. I couldn't even finish the beer, and we ended up taking most of the pizza home. Of course, the beer and the appetizers took their toll, but beer-n-pizza, right? Anyway, it was good, and the boys ate heartily. Great thin crust pizza...

See how much we had left over? Great stuff!

Speaking of beer, saw something amusing on my bike ride home (btw, it was frickin' chilly by the lake -- definitely going to wear a jacket tomorrow) -- anyway, a gaggle of either boys or else barely-legal skater kids got busted on the beach by bike cops for bringing lots of PBRs with them. They looked particularly chagrined, since all of their beer was, of course, taken. They were getting ticketed, so I assume they were legal adults getting busted for bringing booze to the lake -- open container and/or who knows what else? Their faces were priceless, like "Fawwwwwwwwwwwwk."

June

I'm kind of amazed it's June already. Summer's nigh upon us! I'm very aware of the long days, perhaps more than I've been in a long time.

I am tempted to catch the new Terrence Malick movie, "The Tree of Life." It's a whisker over two hours long, which is always a deterrent for me, where movies are concerned, but his style of movie-making is very singular and would play out very well on the big screen, so I may catch it when it rolls through town. Haven't decided, yet. I thought that with "The Thin Red Line," too -- wanting to see it on the big screen, but punting it, then catching it on DVD, and thinking "This would have really been great to see on the big screen." We'll see where it's showing; it's coming to Chicago tomorrow.

They finally drained those underpasses. I'm grateful for that, although they shouldn't be clogging up to begin with. The city needs to stay on that. The US has been lagging for over 20 years on infrastructure development, shamefully behind our supposed peers in the First World; that takes its toll around the country. Bridges, roads, sewer systems, all of that. It's going to take some major collapse of something critical to likely shake off the ignorant torpor that the Right inflicts on the citizenry for that kind of stuff. Infrastructure matters (and it's one of the few capital investments that can't be offshored -- it actually yields multigenerational benefits here at home).

I keep thinking about scoring myself a ticket to Next, the avant-restaurant of Grant Achatz fame. The theme of it changes every few months, and right now it's Paris, 1906, so I am tempted to go and try it out. I'd probably have to fast before attending such a thing, as they pile on the courses, there, from what I've heard, and it's all very rich. What's kept me back so far is the irritation of having to buy a ticket to go. But what tempts me is that I've had Achatz's cuisine before, way, way back when he worked at Trio, a top-notch restaurant in Evanston, and he is a wizard with food, he truly is. That meal I had at Trio was sublime, so I know that his approach at Next will be as thoroughly awesome. So, I have that to consider, as well. I have to see how long it's still the French cuisine, before it changes, and decide from there.

I'm all thrown off by the Memorial Day Monday; today feels like it should be a Friday, but it's so not! Haha!